Got A Minute?

You’d be amazed at how powerful one minute can be. Or, then again, maybe you wouldn’t.

For most of us, there’s been the experience of seeing, hearing, or reading something that instantly triggered a cascade of emotions that shifted – for better or worse – the mood of an entire day. The “tone” of a co-worker’s voice in the break room. Looking at the newspaper headlines as you wait in the checkout line. Passing the scene of an accident on the road. Seeing your best friend’s phone number show up on the caller ID.

Problem is, once that reset button is pushed, it tends to stay that way. We put on a different pair of “glasses” that can color our perception of future events in a wash of anxiety, fear, joy, anger or sadness. We’re experiencing the past rather than living in the present.

The good news is, it doesn’t have to be this way. We can learn to find our way back to stability, calm and pleasure through the techniques of mindfulness.

Being a person who’s usually short on time, and long on list-making, the book title intrigued me. I liked his suggestion that “Mindfulness is about your humanity, it’s about how you do the thing you do.” His book is not about having a different life, it’s about doing the same life differently.

Here’s some things I especially enjoyed about the book:

It’s high on content, short on wordiness.

The suggestions for practice are organized in Chapters around the way we live such as: Work and Play, Work and Creativity, Relationships and Love, Health and Well-Being, Spirituality.

You don’t have to “begin at the beginning, and end at the end” – you can begin with any section or practice that seems useful at the time.

You might also just open the book at random and work with whatever option presents itself. This could be a lot of fun.

It feels practical. It feels doable. Even something as simple and daily as taking a shower, driving a car, or greeting our family can be an avenue to mindfulness.

The longer I’m around in this life, the more I realize that to grow personally and spiritually it’s not necessary to renounce the world or anything in it. All the opportunities we need to practice are right here, right now, smack in the middle of living with our jobs, friends, and families.

As Altman writes: “This is a journey into life’s true possibility, freshness, mystery, wonder and novelty…..After all, who knows what amazing things may happen in the next minute?”

PS: You may want to check out other books by Donald Altman such as “The Mindfulness Code”, “Living Kindness” and, one of my favorites, “The Art of the Inner Meal”. Here’s a good video of Donald Altman talking about and demonstrating some basic mindfulness techniques.

4) “Pedals for Progress” – Saturday,September 17th,2011, 10am-4pm- St. Vincent Parish Center 894 Madison Avenue, Albany – Donate your unused bicycles (no trikes please!) to help the poor overseas with transportation to get to jobs, markets and schools. “Pedals for Progress” has received , processed and donated over 125,000 bicycles to partner charities in 32 developing world countries. Volunteers also needed to prepare the bikes for shipping. Call Charlie Hughes: 518-439-1789 or St. Vincent’s Church 518-489-5408

Judi England

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